The president of British Cycling has promised to press for the return of a women's Tour de France, as a campaign to reinstate the race gathers pace.

British rider Chris Froome won the 100th edition of the classic road race in Paris last weekend, but there is currently no parallel women's event. A women's version of the tour was held in France between 1984 and 2009, but has not been run in recent years, largely due to problems finding sponsors.

Brian Cookson, the president of British Cycling, who is standing against the controversial incumbent Pat McQuaid to become president of the sport's global governing body, the UCI, has promised to put his weight behind a campaign for a women's race – whose petition has attracted more than 82,000 signatures.

The campaign was launched earlier this month by athletes including former world champion and 2008 Olympic time trial silver medallist Emma Pooley and multiple world ironman triathlon champion Chrissie Wellington – while current British stars, including Dani King and Laura Trott, have also backed the calls for a women's race.

"There's been a lot of attention recently on the need to develop women's cycling at all levels of the sport and it is a key part of my election manifesto for the presidency of the UCI," said Cookson. "People are passionate about the issue and are rightly frustrated that not enough is being done.

"We need to work closely with organisers, sponsors, teams and broadcasters to create new events on the professional calendar. A women's equivalent of the Tour de France is one potential solution and the focus of attention of a really successful petition."

Cookson will stand against McQuaid in September and has promised to reform the sport to rehabilitate its reputation in the wake of the Lance Armstrong affair.

"Undoubtedly having a female equivalent of the biggest bike race in the world is an objective we need to explore," he added. "This is why I am setting up a meeting involving [Olympic road race champion] Marianne Vos, Emma Pooley and other key representatives behind the petition with the right people, including Tour de France owners ASO and UCI management committee member Tracey Gaudry."

Cookson also announced that the Tour of Britain would have an accompanying five-day international women's race from 2014, as the first step to a full tour alongside the men's race.

Cookson said it was important to understand why women's teams and races had struggled to attract backing in the past in order to move forward. "We know that some previous attempts to simply replicate men's events and men's teams have been problematic and failed, so it is vital that we learn from the past," said Cookson. "We must also work on rewarding the efforts of elite women riders by guaranteeing a minimum wage and ensuring modern employment standards are introduced for the top-level teams. Coupling this with the wider development proposals I outlined in my election manifesto will begin to change the essential economics of women's cycling."

The debate over equality in cycling was thrust into the limelight at last year's Olympic Games, when Lizzie Armitstead spoke out on the issue after winning Great Britain's first medal, a silver in the road race. "[In] a lot of women's teams you're lucky if they buy you a sandwich at the race … sponsors keep pulling out of races so they get cancelled … the calendar has been more than decimated.

"I get enough to live off, better than most women in the sport. The depressing thing is that there is so much money in cycling but it all stays in one bit of the sport, not much of it trickles down."

In an explosive retirement statement, 2008 Olympic gold medallist Nicole Cooke hit out in January at the UCI for not doing more to promote equality, arguing every drugs scandal in the men's sport had impacted even more negatively on women's cycling. Women's road racing had "crumbled" under its watch, she said.

"With sponsors and support lost, the riders in the sport are exposed and vulnerable in so many ways. Many riders receive just token reward or rewards paid out in a capricious and unfair way. Some receive nothing," said Cooke.

Last week, the shadow culture secretary, Harriet Harman, wrote to the Tour de France's director, Christian Prudhomme, to back calls for the resurrection of the women's race. She also called for a women's race to be held alongside next year's Grand Départ – the start of the Tour de France – which will be in Yorkshire.

"The Grand Départ being held in Yorkshire and from Cambridge to London in 2014 presents a great opportunity to hold a women's event and set an example to the rest of Europe and Le Tour," said Harman. "After the success of the Olympics, women's cycling should not be allowed to slip back into the shadows."